Naughty Dog have historically been the developers who put out a compelling trilogy of games for a particular Sony platform — together with kart racing complimentary title — and then moved on to the next platform. They bucked this trend with the excellent The Last of Us last year, but for the most part it’s been as follows: Crash Bandicoot on PlayStation, Jak & Daxter on PlayStation 2, Uncharted on PlayStation 3 and who knows what on PlayStation 4.

In recent times however, they’ve been doing a bit more than that. At least, that’s what’s been rumoured. We can at least state with certainty that there is an Uncharted 4 currently in development. We can also state with certainty that The Last of Us is headed to PlayStation 4 some time in the near future. From here on out, it gets a bit more rumour-centric. For one, they seem to be putting serious thought into a The Last of Us sequel. For another, there have been words shared about bringing back Jak & Daxter. Oddly, there hasn’t yet been any news of any new IP from the developer.

Let’s keep in mind for a moment that at present time some of Sony’s biggest titles on PS4 are just the next iterations in currently existing franchises, the likes of Killzone: Shadow Fall and inFamous: Second Son, and none of the next-gen games have really shone just yet.

I can’t help but think to myself: Is this the invisible hand of Sony putting pressure on Naughty Dog like never before?

Part of writing about anything involves not just purporting facts based on undeniable evidence but also taking what minor facts exist and then asking the difficult questions. In this case, have Naughty Dog’s higher-ups decided that enough is enough and started a slow but certain exodus of talent?

You have to admit, a team the likes of Naughty Dog is never not dripping with passion, so to see people voluntarily leave must raise a few eyebrows, or is it just me on this? Then again, I did sit and watch all of those ‘making of’ videos after completing each Uncharted game and I have been incredibly hard on The Last of Us since playing it because I truly believe in the kind of developer that Naughty Dog is, where we even considered them for Studio of the Year for multiple years running.

And here we are, watching key figures walk away from not just The Last of Us on PS4 but also Uncharted 4 and who knows what else? Is this publisher pressure working its magic once more? Is the Sony we see today not the Sony that everyone else gets to see behind closed doors, or is all of this entirely just the conspiracy theorist within me, going wild?